Edit: It isn't often that I comment on a commenter, but this is the exception: "Denise White" is a scumbag.

(EDIT: Typically, when the Columbian screws up (an all-too-frequent occurrence, to be sure) or it makes someone they like look bad, the article has a habit of disappearing off their web site. The article, along with it's contents, has vaporized into thin air. Fortunately, the Internet makes total disappearance next to impossible.

For now, at least, the article in question that resulted in these moronic, ignorant and slimy comments by one "Denise White" is found here: Even if I had linked to it, the link would have been busted by the paper. Unfortunately, the comments replying to this idiot are also gone.)

The County or the Legion screwed up on the Veteran's Relief Fund checkbook. That, however, is a subject for another post.

The subject for THIS post is the comments to that article, located here, concerning the fact that such a fund even exists. The commenter in question is someone calling themselves "Denise White."

Now, we have no way of knowing if this "Denise White" identity is real. For that matter, "Denise White" may be some moron whose real name is Joe Dokes or something.

I really don't give a damn, one way or the other.

Her/his/its comments are based on the screw up where an emergency relief check bounced.

As of this post, these are her/is/its comments:

by Denise White : 9/16/09 7:01am - Report Abuse

I don't understand why tax funds are going to pay any private citizen's rent and utilities, veteran or not. This sounds like something that should go away.

Well, Denise, you don't understand because you're a self-centered moron. You don't understand because YOU have never cared enough about your country to serve it... to risk your life, limb and/or mind for a cause greater than you.

You "don't understand" because you don't WANT to understand.

The fact is this: there is precisely one group of this society who deserves absolutely everything our society can give it. They.... we.... are the ONLY group that has prepaid what society returns to us.

We have.... prepaid benefits.

I ran into some hard times while I was in college. In this instance, the Reserves had screwed up my pay, simultaneously with the VA.

To eat, I had to get a voucher from Veteran's Relief in Spokane County. It was $74, twice a month, for 3 months.

It got me through.

On the other end, The Reserves overpaid me twice in an effort to pay me back. Naturally, in due course, the Army took their money back, because as Army finance will tell you, Finance giveth, and Finance taketh away.

I went back to Veteran's Relief to write them a check for the $450 or so they had provided me to get me through... and I could not pay them back because they did not have any mechanism in place to take cash in.... only to give it out.

That was back in '81. They were there when I needed them... and I felt no qualms in taking the money.

Now, there are going to be those who do not understand that when the men and women of this country who put their ass on the line for scumbags like Denise, we are not thinking about $600 to keep the water turned on.

And as I sit here in my old age watching the next generations of our finest young men and women gear up to put THEIR asses on the line for scumbags like "Denise," I sometimes ask why they would bother.

Why do we fight for ungrateful, self-centered morons like Denise? She doesn't give a damn how much blood we've spilled, pain we've endured; heat and cold she can't even dream of, years away from our families; low pay (when I enlisted, it was for the princely sum of $288 per month) and everything else that comes with serving our Nation for idiots like her... and Harry "we've already lost in Iraq" Reid, and Dick "The Armed Forces are Nazis" Durbin, and that empty-suited, Anti-American racist bigot occupying the White House.

My son is about to become a Marine. He's doing this against my wishes, because I am concerned that scum like "Denise" in the political world will not hesitate to sell him out like the democrats controlling government sold us out during and after the Vietnam War.

Morons like "Denise," who cheerfully presume they have a clue simply do not understand that society as a whole understands the unpayable debt they generate each and every time someone takes the oath.

We know what she will never know... because she will never WANT to know.

Perhaps, one day, she will find out from direct experience what happens when EVERYONE just throws up their hands and says "the hell with it."

Until then, we'll continue to protect moronic scum like "Denise," even though they are anything BUT worth of that protection... or the costs it all too frequently incurs.

That said, I'll leave you with the rest of the moronic, clueless idiocy that is "Denise White."

by Denise White : 9/16/09 8:58am - Report Abuse

I just don't think the purpose of tax funds is to be handed out to pay other people's rent, unless those funds are available to everyone. That is the purpose of a private charity. I am not paying taxes to pay other people's rent.
Thanks Steve, my brain is on. And anyone with half a brain would realize what I was referring to was handouts, not money legitimately earned.
How do you even know the guy is a "legitimate down and out vet"? Sounds like he has quite a sense of entitlement. Wish, of course, is what is wrong with this country.

by Denise White : 9/16/09 9:47am - Report Abuse

Wow Tony, you read a lot into this story.
All you really know about this guy is that he was in the Air Force in the early eighties, he can't pay his rent, and he thinks ""I would expect a government agency to cut me a check. There shouldn't be a problem". But, if you want to pay the guy's rent, feel free.

If there were a similar fund set up where the county was paying 25 grand a month to say, assist laid off teachers in paying their rent, I am sure the sentiment here would be markedly different.

I continue to believe it is a misuse of public funds to pay for housing for one segment of the population but not others. I come from a family where nearly all the males for 3 generations have been in the military. I am proud to say none of them see their military service as a reason to expect handouts.

by Denise White : 9/16/09 10:46am - Report Abuse

Wow. I thought I was a bleeding heart liberal, but I guess not. I continue to find it shocking that public funds are going for such a private purpose, but whatever.

by Denise White : 9/16/09 11:20am - Report Abuse

"Thanks for volunteering for the military 25 years ago. I have been happy to subsidize, through my taxes, your health benefits, veteran's college loans, and VA loans for buying a house. I didn't benefit from any of that, I just got to pay for it, but what the hey? You served your country and all that. However, I am feeling a little "down and out" myself these days, so I would like to take a pass on paying your rent. But don't worry, Tony's got ya covered."
Denise

by Denise White : 9/16/09 11:57am - Report Abuse

Vets are eligible for unemployment too, assuming they have been employed. People who aren't vets also become homeless if they can't pay for housing. I just don't think public money should go for paying a private expense of a particular group of people. Firefighters, police, lots of occupations put their "life on the line." Is there a fund set up to pay their rent during hard times? Many people do things that are of great benefit to society. Doesn't mean when hard times come, they get their rent paid. I hear sad stories of people going through incredible stress right now because they can't pay their bills, and they and their kids are about to be on the streets. There isn't a county fund for them. I just can't get my mind around why this particular group is singled out for special treatment, and I certainly had no idea the County was doing this.

I never thought I'd see the day when Bill Fromhold lied: Local Dems again push for C-Tran ability to levy tax for light rail

.
Local democrats seem particularly keen on jamming an unwanted, unneeded and massive waste of money and increased costs down our collective throats known as the I-5 Bridge Replacement/Loot rail project.

It's bad enough that they desperately want to be able to engage in their political pay backs and pay offs without asking us if we want this huge pile of crap dumped in our laps.

But our leftist legislators are so in the tank that they refuse to take any action to ASK us if WE want this garbage. And we all know why.

Bill Fromhold is a former legislator from the Soviet Socialist Republic of the 49th District. This district will act as the first stage terminus of this public policy abortion known as loot rail. Bill has had a long career in government, and left the legislature in part to administer a fund designed to, effectively, increase teaching competency in this state.

He was screwed out of that gig by the WEA, so he needed another job. Ultimately, he's landed a gig as chief liar for the Columbian River Crossing Rip off, the group who has gone through 10's of millions of taxpayer provided dollars to produce a pre-ordained outcome study that I could have provided for $20.

Now we find ourselves on a particularly despicable action on the part of Craig Pridemore, best known for cutting wholly-owned tribal/David Barnett subsidiary Commissioner Steve Stuart a huge brake back in 2005 by modifying campaign contribution legislation he was working on so that his buddy Stuart could keep massive contributions by local developers.

This is the C-Trans redux, based on the strategy those scum employed when they passed their last vote. That strategy included skillful gerrymandering that cut out as many as 51,000 voters from north and east county so that they could turn their crushing tax increase defeat at the polls into a huge victory.

What they're doing effectively amounts to drawing their boundaries around every retail center of any size within the county, so those centers would have to charge the tax increase, even to the tens of thousands who were not allowed to have any say in the vote itself.

Local legislative opposition to this iteration of stealing from the people is in large part based on the ongoing C-Trans theft that has taken place for years, and will take place in the future.

This history is easily proven. It was an entirely legal scam where democracy took a bullet in the most rotten and unjustifiable way.

Fromhold, when confronted is quoted in the Pravda Columbian thusly:

"I think we just take a different point of view in terms of the fairness issue," he said. "It's more fair in that the users of the high-capacity transit are going to be the taxpayers of the high-capacity transit."

Yeah. And the sign over the door at concentration camps used to say "Arbeit Macht Frei." (Work makes you free.)

Forcing people to pay for something when they haven't been allowed the right to vote on the project at hand is, perhaps, the LEAST fair outcome possible. And to believe or expect that C-Trans or it's minions would suddenly give a damn about "fairness" after how badly they've been screwing us for years is to believe the sun comes up in the South.

On the surface, Mr. Fromhold's response makes sense. But only on the surface.

The fact is this: no one has drawn any lines to show us as what the outlines of this extortion is going to look like. But you can rest assured that it will include every Fred Meyers; every Safeway, the Vancouver Mall, every WalMart, every QFC, every Albertsons, Every Best Buy, every Costco... every... every.

So the FACT is this: like the C-Trans scam that took place before, tens of thousands of us will not be allowed to vote. But NONE of us will be able to avoid paying the tax increase to cover this unwanted and unneeded project, because ALL of the retail centers will be magically included within the gerrymandered borders of this scam... REGARDLESS of whether or not we are "users of high-capacity transit."

Notice that Fromhold even avoids the term "light rail?" Remember the leftist outrage at Dino Rossi's decision to use the term "GOP" instead of "Republican?"

Same thing.

So, in that respect, Fromhold has agreement with the massive and unlistened-to opposition: We DO have a "different view" about "fairness." Fromhold and the people he works for absolutely don't give a damn about fairness, while the rest of us actually do.

Remember, people: there is no lie the proponents of this colossal and unimaginable waste of money will not tell to make it happen. They don't give a damn about fairness or anything else we want as long as they can get their economic black hole of a project through, regardless of our opposition.

If successful, this will be a stain on the very idea of democracy here locally that will last for decades. This despicable and inexcusable conduct is just that. And for that, there is no possibly acceptable excuse.


Local Dems again push for C-Tran ability to levy tax for light rail
But 18th District Republicans vow to fight House and Senate bill

Thursday, February 19 6:46 p.m.

BY KATHIE DURBIN
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Democratic lawmakers from Vancouver are pushing again this year for legislation that would allow C-Tran to create a subdistrict to fund operation of light rail in Clark County.

But Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera and Ed Orcutt, who represent the 18th District, have vowed to fight the measure, saying it would require some residents of north and east Clark County to pay higher taxes where they work and shop.

Bills in both chambers would allow C-Tran to ask voters living within the subdistrict to tax themselves to pay for operation of a light rail line connecting to Tri-Met's system in the Portland metropolitan area. Voter approval would be required before either a system plan or a finance plan could be implemented.

Sen. Craig Pridemore is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5540, which had a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 9. Rep. Jim Moeller is the lead sponsor of House Bill 1677, which is scheduled for action by the House Transportation Committee Thursday.

The ability to create a High-Capacity Transportation Corridor Area is key to C-Tran's strategy for connecting urban Clark County to light rail or high-capacity bus transit as part of the construction of a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River.

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